


In Celestial Tango

by SilverBlaze85



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Gipsy Danger POV, Jaegercon Bingo, Sentient Jaegers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-20
Updated: 2013-08-20
Packaged: 2017-12-24 01:52:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverBlaze85/pseuds/SilverBlaze85
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fill for the "Jaeger" square on my bingo card. Just a general musing from Gipsy Danger after the Knifehead fight, and her subsequent resurrection. </p><p>
  <i><br/>It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. I should have realized it wasn’t down, should have fought harder against turning our back. But… we thought ourselves invincible. We were wrong, and my boys paid the price. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Celestial Tango

I failed them. 

It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. I should have realized it wasn’t down, should have fought harder against turning our back. But… we thought ourselves invincible. We were wrong, and my boys paid the price. 

I still hear their screams, at night when the bays are silent. 

I still feel Yancy die, still feel Raleigh spasm through the seizures. Something that the brass and the public don’t know, something the scientists don’t understand. The Drift… it links three, not two. Yancy and Raleigh, and the blood and the sweat, the fear and the defiance bleed into me, turn me into more than metal. There are stories of the oldest Jaegers twitching and moving as their pilots sleep in their bunks. 

I’m thankful that we’d been together for so long. It was a hell of a fight to kill the Kaiju, between my own pain flaring and bouncing off Raleigh’s, between my own amputations and losses, and Raleigh’s burns and terror. We killed the son of a bitch, and Raleigh held on as best he could, and I couldn’t do any less. We ignored the tears and oil and burns and sparks and fought our way back to the mainland. After the fourth seizure, when Raleigh screamed more for Yancy than he could focus on pushing forward, I started scanning for life-forms, and started pushing towards those tiny humans. The only thing I could do for my boy now was get us to land, get him into hands made of blood and skin, not oil and metal.   
We fell to the dirt, and I had enough sense left to fall to my knees first, remembered that toppling over would finish what the Kaiju and the trek home had started. Disconnect Raleigh from the latching system, and the tumble to the snow jarred him aware again. 

I held on long enough to make sure Raleigh was safe, to make sure the medical staff had him, and then I let go and fell into the darkness.   
I never thought I’d see Raleigh again. The Jaegers know a pilot doesn’t survive piloting alone, and most Jaegers damaged as much as I had been never come back to the bays. 

**

Years later, I felt a spark, enough to struggle to awareness. A tiny human stood nearby, hand on my whole arm, Kaiju-Blue in her hair, and it took a long moment before she nodded, wrote on a clipboard, and pulled out a phone, turning away as she spoke. I faded, but carried the small warmth of her touch through the next few months. After Yancy, after Raleigh, there hadn’t been gentle touches. 

They dragged me to Hong Kong, had me propped up in a bay, and I had enough sense to be aware that the Kaiju-Blue girl was close by. Crews started to piece me back together, and the more repairs they did, the more I stared recognizing others. Marshall Stacker as he strode through, Tendo Choi as he watched me unobtrusively at night before turning away, Hercules Hansen striding through with his son and dog, all three barking in their own Hansen language. I wondered, in still moments, what had happened to Raleigh, how long I had been rusting away. And I wondered why they had brought me back. 

And then Miss Mako Mori came into the bays, and I started to learn. She was quiet but firm, and had no qualms bending others to her will. I learned who she was, and I learned why they had resurrected me. 

Five years, and the Kaiju were still attacking. Five years since Yancy, since Knifehead, and we were losing now. And when Striker arrived from Australia, I learned what they wanted me to do. 

**

I had been watching Cherno come in, victorious as we had always thought ourselves, when my circuits started sparking in recognition. I refocused, and the sight of my Raleigh, older, quieter, but whole and alive and in the bays, brought my heart to a stutter.

And I’m not ashamed to admit that I vowed. I swore if I could have just one more fight with my boy, I could rest peacefully. It was selfish, but I couldn’t help it. 

I not only got my boy back, but also Miss Mako, in all her determined glory. 

And this time, I will _not_ fail them.


End file.
